Russia "expresses its resolute protest in the wake of the decision made by some EU and NATO countries to expel Russian diplomats"

MOSCOW, March 26. /TASS/. The decision by some countries to expel Russian diplomats won’t be left unanswered and Moscow will respond to these unfriendly steps, Russia’s Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Monday.

"The Russian side, despite our numerous calls on London [in the case of the poisoning of former Russian military intelligence officer Sergei Skripal and his daughter], has no information on this score. The allies of Great Britain also lack objective and conclusive data [in the ex-spy’s poisoning case] and they blindly follow the principle of the Euro-Atlantic unity to the detriment of common sense, the norms of civilized inter-state dialogue and the principles of international law," the ministry stressed.

"Naturally, this unfriendly step by this group of countries won’t be left unanswered and we will respond to it," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

Russia "expresses its resolute protest in the wake of the decision made by some EU and NATO countries to expel Russian diplomats," the statement reads.

"We consider this step as unfriendly and failing to correspond to the tasks and interests of finding the causes and searching for the culprits in the incident that occurred in Salisbury on March 4," the Russian Foreign Ministry said.

"The provocative gesture of the notorious solidarity with London shown by these countries, which have taken the lead from the authorities of Great Britain in the so-called Skripal case and which have not bothered to make the circumstances of this case clear, is the continuation of the confrontation line towards escalating the situation," the statement says.

"By advancing unfunded accusations against Russia in the absence of the explanations for what has happened and rejecting substantive interaction, the UK authorities de-facto have assumed a biased, charged and hypocritical position," the Russian Foreign Ministry said in its statement.